ECGDallas Weblog

This morning, my son and I led a disease safari as a part of the 3rd Saturday education program. We saw a few diseases in the garden. This is quite surprising as we have had moist conditions as well as relatively warm temperatures. Participants did get to see some squash wilting. Unfortunately (or fortunately), not due to bacterial wilt but due to insect problems (squash borers). There were a few tomatoes which were exhibiting blossom end rot, a problem due to nutritional imbalance. There was powdery mildew on summer squash, zucchini, gourd plants. And on the grape, just a little "tar spot". Interestingly, quite a few tomato plants were also exhibiting abnormal growth of new plant tissue (also known as epinasty). I am not entirely sure why this is happening, I don't think its due to herbicides though. It is probably a response to fertility and the high fluctuation in temperature we had in the last few weeks (Just a guess!). In all, the safari proceeded on a day that was rather pleasant. Don't miss the next 3rd Saturday program. We are taking a break in July and will continue in August with Ms. Kim Schofield talking about good and bad bugs.